Money laundering
Pedocrime is in the dead angle of Swiss banks
In 2024, Swiss financial institutes noted any suspicious cases to the competent authorities. While many came from abroad.
In 2024, 15,736 suspicions of pedocrime were reported to Fedpol, a record.
AFP
- In 2024, more than 15,000 suspicions of pedocrime were reported to Fedpol, a record.
- The same year, Swiss banks brought in any cases suspicious of transactions linked to the anti -sinking standard.
- The situation took up the federal elected representative Benoît Gaillard, who filed an arrest.
- The Federal Council will have to decide on this situation.
In Switzerland, money laundering does not only concern traditional financial crimes, such as drug trafficking or corruption, but also other activities generating illegal income. However, you have to put two figures next to each other to realize that something is wrong, when we talk about crimes related to pedocrime.
In His 2024 reportFedpol writes having received 15,736 suspicions of pedocrime from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. This American organization is one of the most important partners in the Federal Police Office. And for good reason, it is she who collects all the reports detected by Internet platforms and other social networks and who transmits them to Fedpol in the event of a link with Switzerland.
More than 15,000 suspicions received by Fedpol
This figure of more than 15,000 suspicions (against 12,000 in 2023)it must be compared with another figure published in The 2024 report of the communication office in money laundering. The MROS specifies in fact not having “received any communication of suspicions of child pornography” from Swiss banks. A situation which he describes as amazing, “taking into account the fact that the infraction of child pornography is mainly committed online and that the content concerned is regularly the subject of payments”.
For Benoît Gaillard (PS/VD), who raised this hare, “it seems unlikely that no transaction linked to child psychians and concerned by the anti -iblanching standard has taken place through a Swiss financial institute”. Especially since the MOS specifies having received 70 spontaneous information from its counterparts abroad. The report adds: “The latter managed to demonstrate a clear link between the portfolios used, the potential accounts or criminals and the offense. The addresses of criminals are distributed throughout Swiss territory, even if there is no nerve. ”
Faced with this reality, Benoît Gaillard has just placed an arrest. The national councilor wants to know what the Federal Council thinks of this situation. He wonders in particular if the monitoring carried out by the financial institutes to detect suspicious cases is sufficient and adequate. Or if it should not be changed the law.
Money laundering in law
It is indeed necessary to stop here a few moments on the legislation to understand the link between pedocrime and money laundering. In Switzerland, money laundering concerns any crime generating illegal income. However, in Swiss law, we consider as a crime an offense punishable by a private sentence of freedom of more than 3 years.
In summary, if pedocrime generates money and the initial case is sufficiently serious – we think here for example of the production or the circulation of effective acts featuring children – then it is part of the anti -iblanching standard (art. 305 CP). And financial institutes must denounce suspicious cases.
Benoît Gaillard (PS/VD).
Parliament services
“If the banks have not pointed out any cases in 2024, it may be that the meshes of the net are too wide,” analyzes Benoît Gaillard. To tighten them, we could for example change the law. ” He thinks of “an explicit obligation for financial institutes to monitor all financial transactions potentially linked to the crimes that affect child psychians, and not only to the crimes considered serious”.
An idea that does not fall from nowhere. In an interview with “Tages-Anzeiger »the manager of the communication office in money laundering indicated that the fact that the purchase for clean consumption, including equipment with actual acts, is not considered as a prior offense “makes detection of transactions even more difficult”.
What banks think in Switzerland
The financial institutes being directly affected by the problem, we have contacted the Swiss Banker Association (ASB). We asked him to explain to us why the banks do not see the disputed transactions pass.
“The guide” Financial Intelligence Against Human Trafficking “published by the Communication Office in money laundering indicates that, according to the international charity Internet Watch Foundation, it is above all cryptocurrencies, credit cards and fund transfer companies which are used to pay the material relating to sexual abuse”, replies Deborah Jungo-Schwalm, communication.
As for the recommendations of the manager of the MROS and to a possible adaptation of the law to better detect the problematic cases, the ASB boot in touch. “According to our interpretation, the director of the communication office in money laundering said that the simple consumption of child pornography is not legally considered as a prior offense within the meaning of the money laundering law.” And to specify that it does not clearly see how the law should be adapted.
Questions that we also asked in Finma. The gendarme of banks being responsible for monitoring compliance with the obligations posed by the money laundering law. The latter is not very prolix either and is content to answer: “In a very general way, we can say that childish pornography can constitute an offense prior to money laundering and that funds and financial flows linked to this activity are considered to be incriminated within the meaning of the money laundering.”
Answers that annoy Benoît Gaillard. “By lowering the threshold of the offenses concerned, one should logically increase the efficiency of monitoring and better detect cases of money laundering linked to pedocrime. But if banks think it is useless and hide behind the excuse of cryptocurrencies, credit cards and fund transfer companies, it is because this monitoring is useless. And that we must rethink from top to bottom our way of fighting against this scourge. ”
Depending on the responses of the Federal Council to its arrest, the Vaudois already plans to return to the charge.
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